Adhesive coated cleaning article



March 26, 1963 D. MUTCHLER ETAL 3,032,453

ADHESIVE COATED CLEANING ARTICLE Filed March 4, 1959 INVENTORS DAVID E. MUTCHLE R LAWRENCE W. BINGER AT TORNE YS hired rates This invention relates to an adhesive coated cleaning article. More particularly, it relates to an endless band of flexible sheet material provided on its outer face with a coating of pressure-sensitive adhesive. The invention further relates to the packaging of a plurality of such articles in a conveniently useable container and display carton.

This application is a continuation-in-part of our now abandoned earlier application Serial No. 504,941 filed by us on April 29, 1955, for Ahesive Coated Cleaning Article.

As is well known, articles of clothing, and other woven, knitted or felted articles normally and usually accumulate unwanted foreign material, such as dust, lint, etc, upon their surfaces. Such foreign material is unsightly and, in some instances, is harmful to the surface upon which it lies. It has heretofore been customary practice to remove such foreign materials from the surface of clothing, etc, by brushing the same vigorously, as with a whisk broom. This method, however, has not been entirely successful in removing lint which has become entangled with the surface fibers of the textile being brushed. Also, the brushing of garments is a time consuming operation, and, to some extent, results in undesirable abrasion of the textile. Furthermore, in a brushing operation the entire garment must frequently be brushed to remove pieces of lint, etc. which lie on a particular area thereof, e.g., the shoulders.

One particular advantage of the articles of the present invention is that they are adapted to very quickly and easily remove lint, etc. from the particular areas on clothing where such undesirable material most normally accumulates. In other words, by employment of our adhesive coated bands, there is no need to work over the entire garment to remove dust or such like merely from one area thereof. Thus a garment may be cleaned more quickly and easily than -by the brushing method heretofore most commonly employed.

A further advantage of our invention is that our adhesive bands more successfully remove stubborn bits of foreign material. The outer surface of each of our bands has a high degree of tack and great afiinity for the lint, etc. which is being removed from the article of clothing.

Others have previously sought to overcome some of the disadvantages inherent in the brushing of garments by providing roller devices and such like which employ adhesive coated strip material to remove lint. However, such previous devices have been relatively expensive to manufacture and diiiicult to load and operate. Such devices have not, therefore, gone into wide usage for their intended purpose. The articles of the present invention, on the other hand, are extremely inexpensive to manufacture and particularly simple to use. No mechanical devices are needed to utilize our bands, and they are packaged in such a way as to be readily available for usage without the necessity of preliminary preparation, such as loading or insertion into some mechanical device.

The articles of our invention find wide utility. In addition to being particularly suited for use by the average householder (who may very conveniently keep one package of our bands in each bedroom of his home) they are equally suitable for use by operators of clothing stores (to keep rack garments free from accumulations of dust), by barber shop operators, by check room attendants, by

atent G 3,082,453 Patented Mar. 26, 1963 "ice railroad porters, by dry cleaning employees and by many others associated with maintaining the appearance or condition of clothing or textiles. Obviously, of course, our adhesive bands are especially adapted for use in fabric cleaning lamp shades, etc., where the delicate nature of the fabric involved precludes vigorous brushing to remove foreign matter.

A particular objective of our invention is to package adhesive bands in such manner that they will be attractive for use, and will meet the current demand for simply packaged merchandise. As will be set out in detail hereinafter, a plurality of our adhesive bands (e.g., six or more of them) may be packaged in a box or envelope and removed therefrom as simply and conveniently as cleansing tissues may be removed from the type of box in which such goods are packaged.

In manufacturing our articles we make them of a size so as to have a relatively large area of outer surface. Thus, each single band may 'be used for cleaning several garments, thereby reducing the cost of the operation.

The other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent as this description proceeds.

In the drawing:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an adhesive coated cleaning article with protective wrapper embodying the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a view showing an open package of adhesive coated cleaning articles and wrappers, of the type shown in FIG. 1; and

FIGS. 3 through 6 are sectional views showing the steps in the manufacture of an adhesive coated cleaning article and its wrapper of the type shown in FIG. 1.

Referring now to FlGS. l and 2, the presently preferred form of this invention is illustrated. A protected lint remover is shown herein and is generally designated by the reference numeral 40. This article 40 includes a band 42 having a pressure-sensitive adhesive coating 43 which is covered by two sheets 44 and 46 of paper which have been treated with silicone, wax or other material to make them weakly adherent to and hence readily strippable from the pressure-sensitive adhesive coatings 43. The band 42 comprises two rectangular sheets of flexible paper such as, for instance, creped kraft paper, each of which has one of its surfaces coated with pressure-sensitive adhesive 43 such as, for example, a rubber resin type adhesive. The two sheets 48 and Sil are in superposed relation with their coated surfaces 43 on the outside and their uncoated surfaces in surface-to-surface relation. To make the two sheets 48 and 50 into an endless band, two transversely extending end strips 52 and 54 of paper are folded around the edges of the sheets 48 and 50 to overlie their respective adhesive coatings to which they adhere and thus convert the two sheets 48 and 50 into the endless band The band is proportioned to fit around four fingers of an average adult hand and to substantially cover those fingers, the dimensions of the sheets being preferably three and one-eighth inches by three and seveneighths inches. The cover sheets 44 and 46 which constitute a protective wrapper are substantially the same size and configuration as the sheets 48 and 50 and overlie the outer tacky surfaces of said sheets and the portions of the end strips 52 and 54 which overlie the outer surfaces of said sheets. Since the strips 52 and 54 have nonadhesive outer surfaces, the portions of the cover sheets 44 and 46 overlying said strips will be in non-adhering relation therewith and will thus act as tabs to facilitate the users grasping the cover sheets and stripping them from the endless band. Another advantage of this particular type of construction is that by providing two cover sheets, each overlying one-half of the lint remover, the user need only uncover half of the lint remover to use it if he is planning to remove lint from only a relatively small area of his clothing. Thereafter, it is a very simple matter to flatten out the partially used lint remover and. replace the wrapper which has been removed merely by pressing it over the used portion.

The lint remover 40 may be packaged by superposing a plurality of lint removers in a stack and then enclosing: the stack in a folder or envelope '5 (see FIG. 2). In lieu. thereof a carton may be employed.

The article 40 shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 may be made by having two rolls of adhesive coated paper of a width. equal to the length of the two sheets 48 and 50 arranged. so that the adhesive coated paper can be removed from. the rolls in a manner to have the adhesive surfaces 43 out.

of abuting relation and the creped kraft paper backing; 1

48 and 50 in surface-to-surface relation (FIG. 3). With the two sheets superposed, strips 52 and 5 4- may be laid. over the side portions of the adhesive coated surface 43 of one of the sheets, such as the sheet 43, with portions. of the paper strips 52 and 54- out of overlying relation. with the adhesive coating (see FIG. 4). Thereafter, the paper strips 52 and 54 may be folded around the edges. ofthe adhesive coated super-posed sheets to bring arr-- other portion of each of the strips 52 and 54 into adher-- ing relation with the side portions of adhesive coating 43 of the other sheet 59 to formla flattened endless band adapted to fit around the four fingers of the average users hand (see FIG. 5). After this step has been performed sheets of paper which has been treated to be weakly ad-- herent to the adhesive coating 43 are rolled over and. 1

under the upper and lower sheets 48 and 50. The weakly adherent sheets 44 and 46 are of substantially the same width as the sheets 48 and 50 so that the major portions of each of the weakly adherent sheets 44 and 46 overlie: the adhesive coating 43- in weakly adhering relation there-- with and the end portions of sheets 48 and 50 overlie the folded strips 52 and 54 in non-adhering relation therewith (see FIG. 6). Thereafter a cutter is operated to cut the entire assembly in a transverse direction and at such intervals that a final assembly is yielded having a width to cover the fingers of the average adult hand. The resulting article will have each of the cover sheets 4-4- and 46 provided with non-adhering end portions which may be readily grasped to selectively strip the cover sheets from the cleaning article to condition the cleaning article for lint removal.

While we have shown and described several forms of this invention and have suggested various changes and modifications therein, it will be understood that various other changes and modifications therein may be made within the scope of the appended claims without departing from the spirit and scope of this invention.

What we claim is:

1. An adhesive coated cleaning article, comprising a band of cellulosic material having its outer surface coated substantially entirely by a layer of permanently tacky pressure-sensitive adhesive which is non-delarninable from said band, said band including two substantially identical sheets of cellulosic material in superposed surface-tosurface relation with their non-abuting surfaces being coated with said adhesive coating, and a pair of transversely extending strips, one for each end of said super posed sheets, each of said strips overlying and being in adhering relation with end portions of said superposed sheets, whereby to join said sheets to one another to form said band, said band being proportioned to fit around and substantially cover the four fingers of a user and to be supported thereby.

2. As a composite article, an adhesive coated cleaning article, comprising a band of cellulosic material having its outer surface coated substantially entirely by a layer of permanently tacky pressure-sensitive adhesive which is non-delaminable from said band, said band including two substantially identical sheets of cellulosic material in superposed surface-to-surface relation with their nonabnting surfaces being coated with said adhesive coating, and a pair of transversely extending strips, one for each end of said superposed sheets, each of said strips overlying and being in adhering relation with end portions of said superposed sheets, whereby to join said sheets to one another to form said band, said band being proportioned to fit around and substantially cover the four fingers of a user and to be supported thereby, and a wrapper, said wrapper comprising two cover sheets of cellulosic material which are adapted to weakly adhere to said adhesive coatings and be readily strippable therefrom, each of said cover sheets being substantially the same size and con figuration as said sheets forming said hand, one of said cover sheets underlying and the other of said cover sheets overlying said coated sheets in said band and in weakly adhering relation therewith, the ends of said cover sheets overlying and underlying, respectively, said end strips in non-adhering relation therewith, whereby said end portions of said cover sheets are readily graspable for stripping said cover sheets from said band.

3. The method of making an adhesive coated cleaning article, comprising the steps of placing two sheets of one surface adhesive coated cellulosic material in non-coated ssu-rface to non-coated surface relation, overlying two opposed end portions of one of said coated sheets with strips of cellulosic material which adhere to said coating, and folding said strips around said ends into adhering relation with the other of said sheets whereby to form a flat endless band adapted to fit around and be supported by four fingers of a hand, and then cutting to size said sheets together with said adhering strips.

4. The method of making a wrapped adhesive coated cleaning article, comprising the steps of placing two sheets of one surfaceadhesive coated cellulosic material in noncoated surface to non-coated surface relation, overlying two opposed end portions of one of said coated sheets with strips of cellulosic material which adhere to said coating, and folding said strips around said ends into adhering relation with the other of said sheets whereby to form a fiat endless band adapted to fit around and be suppported by four fingers of a hand, and then overlying and underlying said fiat endless band with cellulosic material which weakly adheres to said coating, and then cutting said fiat endless band together with said weakly adhering cellulosic material to yield a length adapted to substantially cover said four fingers.

References (Iited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,169,035 Hirschield Jan. 18, 1916 1,543,283 Falor June 23, 1925 2,055,333 Burke Sept. 22, 1936 2,102,690 Fischer Dec. 211, 1937 2,142,194 Karfiol Jan. 3, 1939 2,371,985 =Freidberg Mar. 20, 1945 2,528,602 Magit Nov. 7, 1950 2,607,711 Hendricks Aug. 19, 1952 2,708,761 Bergquist May 24, 1955 2,716,407 Glickman Aug. 30, 1955 2,724,847 Krasno Nov. 29, 1955 2,755,494 Bredin July 24, 1956 

1. AN ADHESIVE COATED CLEANING ARTICLE, COMPRISING A BAND OF CELLULOSIC MATERIAL HAVING ITS OUTER SURFACE COATED SUBSTANTIALLY ENTIRELY BY A LAYER OF PERMANENTLY TACKY PRESSURE-SENSITIVE ADHESIVE WHICH IS NON-DELAMINABLE FROM SAID BAND, SAID BAND INCLUDING TWO SUBSTANTIALLY IDENTICAL SHEETS OF CELLULOSIC MATERIAL IN SUPERPOSED SURFACE-TOSURFACE RELATION WITH THEIR NON-ABUTING SURFACES BEING 